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IWW Resolution - The ILWU Must Not Be Broken!

The International Warehouse and Longshore Union (ILWU), the dockworkers' union on the US and Canadian West Coast, is under attack by international corporations and their government in Washington, DC.

Across the globe, from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea,' the docks are being privatized and their labor causualized. The world wide union busting project against longshore unions has finally come to capitalism's heartland. This cannot be viewed as only an assault on individual Unions, but a direct challenge to workers' power and the small measures of economic democracy that flows from that power.

The business class will not be satisfied until the clocks of the world, Perhaps the most critical point of distribution in a globalized economy, are fully under their exclusive control.

The Bush regime has threatened to send Federal -Troops into our ports. While decrying the impasse in bargaining, Bush plans only to attack tire ILWU. The threatened use of troops to break the ILWU will have repercussions across the US and the world. I1 will truly shift the ground on which all organized labor stands.

An Appeal to World Labor

Working people cannot allow the ILWU to be broken. The IWW appeal to world labor to organize against the onslaught by the business class, it's government and it's media. The: rank and file must take the lead for make sure trade union's don't run away. No compromise in defense of the working class, we cannot afford it.

An Appeal to those who oppose "Globalization

The anti-globalist movement hits a responsibility to support the ILWU in this struggle. "I here is no Other single event that poses the questions of globalization, militarism, of corporate hegemony and a working class alternative as this struggle at the docks. A victory here will mean more then all the mass demos that have been organized against the elites. A failure would be a historical defeat for liberty, democracy, and workers power. Your movement cannot afford this loss and hope to survive, let alone to succeed.

The IWW also calls on all the foes of corporate globalization to rally to the support of the ILWU. During the dirty wars in Central America-; the Union refused to move war goods. The Union stood in solidarity with the masses against Apartheid by enforcing the boycott of' South African goods. During the N30 protests in Seattle, the ILWU shut down the coast in protest of tire assault on democratic rights and liberties. The ILWU has carried out hundreds of actions in solidarity with workers world wide.

If the ILWU is prevented to strike, If ILWU dockers are replaced by the military...

We urge dockers around the world to refuse to work ships bound for/sailing to the US.

We will urge those in the military to refuse strike breaking work.

We call for a working class boycott of American goods until the ILWU is fairly back at work.

We urge activists in the "anti-globalization" movement, especially those on the US West Coast, to back the ILWU and to be prepared to develop mass protests.